Summer Rains
by blossomstar16
Summary: Four girls, four sports. Proving yourself takes time, after all.


It was raining again in Konoha. Summer was at an end, bringing with it freezing winds and rains, quenching the lingering heat and running chills down my spine as I ran.

There are two things that you need to know about me.

I'm a girl. I'm strong and powerful, but because I'm a girl people will always underestimate me. They'll think that just because I'm a girl I can't be good at what I do.

They're wrong.

I play football.

You heard me.

I'm a girl who plays football. I'm small and fast, I can run better than anyone else.

I don't play just football either, I run cross country for endurance, play tennis for upper body strength, and soccer for agility. I'm a good player and my team respects me.

I'm not foolish enough to say that I'm the best player, no of course not. Despite being strong and fast, football players should be big.

I'm kind of...not. I'm only five foot four. I'm tiny. The shortest guy on the team is five foot nine, 180 pounds. I weigh about 140, all muscle.

As I said before, it was raining. I was three miles from a warm bed and a bowl of soup, and I was wearing running shorts and a t-shirt. My hair was pulled into a slick ponytail, long bangs flinging water into my eyes with every step. I shivered, drawing my arms closer to my sides.

Just three more miles.

My practices were rough on me, and not just because I was being tackled by 200 pound plus guys that smelled like they had never heard of a shower, no.

My captain hates me.

The coach disliked the fact I was a girl at first, but he allowed me to play if we needed someone fast.

Lots of girls complained when I first joined the team that I only wanted a boyfriend, or that I was just a slut who wanted attention. The coach, in the beginning, believed them.

So, I took it to court. I argued my case, and I won. Now, I was to be judged only by my skill, and not by my sex, like the way it should've been.

The captain followed his example.

Enter Sasuke Uchiha, the best damn quarterback since the year of 1978, according to our coach and the entire student body, anyway.

He might have been the best, but he was closed minded.

He made me run extra laps, do extra pushups, extra everything. I couldn't take too long in the changing room, despite the fact there weren't any girl changing rooms on this side of the school, so I had to wait for the guys to finish first. No, if I was late, it was a lap.

If I talked back it was five. I didn't show because I had cramps, it was ten plus a weekend practice for the rest of the second string offense.

It was a great way to make friends, let me tell you.

He was cold and closed off, and as well as being team captain he was play maker and a member of the Nation Honor Society. He was in all AP classes and well on his way to Harvard. He was the guy every girl wanted and what every guy wanted to be.

He was amazingly perfect.

Too perfect if you ask me. He had a major personality flaw, he was too cold. His entire family died when he was little, his parents, and the older brother he had admired so much.

The shock froze him, and it never really wore off.

He hated me, I never really found out why, he just treated me different that the rest of the team, but not in a good way. I didn't hate him for it though.

Hating implies caring after all.

I despised the way he treated me. I wanted respect dammit. I wanted to be treated like an equal.

Two more miles.

The rain was coming thick and fast, just above freezing it seemed, and getting dark. I stopped under a big tree, leaning over to catch my breath. I stretched out my legs, getting ready to run the last leg to get home and stretch some more. I heard a shout, and spun around.

It was Sasuke. He was wearing sweatpants and a wife beater. He was jogging up to me with an umbrella.

Immediately I wished I was wearing dry clothes and wasn't freezing my face off. My shirt was white, after all, even if my sports bra was blue.

"Why are you out in this weather?" he asked me. "It's supposed to thunderstorm soon." I held back my 'why do you care'.

"I do this everyday, rain or shine. I only have two more miles until I get home." His eyebrows shot up.

"I didn't know you ran everyday."

"Well I do."

"I kept giving you laps because I thought you never worked on your endurance."

"I thought you hated me. Why do you think I don't talk to you during class?" Now he looked surprised.

"I never hated you, Sakura." Ugh. Right.

"Uh huh. Sure. I really believe you. I want to get home, and finish my route, so I'll see you at practice." I started down the street, a steady jog making my wet ponytail bean me on the side of the head every step, showering me with even more water. I could've sworn I heard Sasuke muttering curses at himself as I ran away from him, both literally and figuratively.

"Hike!"

Ow. That hurt.

I wheezed and sat up as a 300 pound tackle got off of me and helped me up. I shook out all of my limbs and prepared to be tackled again.

"Wait! Haruno, you have someone waiting for you by the goalpost!" I saw coach yelling at me from the sidelines. I looked to where he mentioned, and broke into a wide grin. I bolted to the benches and threw off my helmet and shoulder pads.

I streaked to the goal post and leapt into Naruto's arms.

He was finally back!

Let me get something straight, Naruto is like a mix between my brother and my best friend. He's always been there for me, but he went to college last year, so I hadn't had much of a chance to see him.

"Sakura-chan! How's my favorite football star? How's the senior life? Bully any freshmen yet?" Naruto grinned down at me.

"It's been okay, and no, unlike you, I took pity on the poor miserable freshmen. If you remember, you bullied me. Then I beat you up, so you got to be careful with freshmen. You never know which ones can beat your ass up." He chuckled and hugged me close again.

"A-hem." I heard from behind me. I turned around, a hint of my happiness at seeing Naruto still on my face, only to be met with Sasuke's glower. "Haruno, get back to practice." I glared back.

"Yes Captain." Naruto didn't like how he was looking at me, and gave my shoulder a firm squeeze in support.

He went to the bleachers, and I headed back to practice and was yelled at my Sasuke more than any other practice I've had in the past three years.

It was nice to see Naruto afterwards, when I was clean and freshly showered. I was getting read to meet Naruto in the parking lot, when my pointy nose ran into Sasuke's chest.

Ow. Again.

"Sakura."

"Sasuke...hi. Um, can I go now?"

"Who is that?"

"Huh?"

"Who is that in the parking lot waiting for you?'

"Oh! You mean Naruto. He's my brother. Well, not by blood." He visibly relaxed, but still looked a little tense.

"Oh. Um, sorry I was so...harsh to you at practice. Exams are coming up and I'm getting kind of stressed. Actually....I was wondering...if um, I could join you on your runs."

Huh?

"Huh?"

"Well, I've been meaning to go running more lately, but if I don't have someone to remind me I'll never get it into my routine...and since you do it so often already..."

I don't think I have ever seen Sasuke Uchiha look so awkward since the cheerleaders attacked him after practice and stole every single piece of clothing off his body except his socks.

They took his socks without taking his shoes off.

Thankfully, I left before full frontal nudity blinded me. I heard about it later, the poor guy though; he looked like rabid dogs attacked him.

"Um, sure. You can join me starting Saturday, and I'll cut my route in half so you can get used to it faster. My friend is going to be joining us too, so the more the merrier!"

His face seemed to sour at this, but then he just thanked me and left.

Weird.

"How do you do this everyday?' Naruto gasped. He bent over to catch his breath. I stopped , and jogged back to Sasuke and Naruto, smirking the whole time. I love being in better shape than boys.

You heard me, boys. They had been acting childish since before we started, picking at each other and being manly about water breaks. Naruto became increasingly annoying and Sasuke increasingly more annoyed, his face getting red and eyes flashing by the second mile.

Usually, I went five miles to a park and then back home for several crunches and cool down exercises. I had freaky endurance, so sue me.

Today I was going 2.5 miles on a hiking trail in the woods. It was cooler in the trees, and kept the sun off. Plus, there were bathrooms. With drinking fountains. It was a runner's heaven.

Both Sasuke and I were ready to kill Naruto by the first mile, but by the time we reached the halfway point, sweaty and out of breath, we were ready to rip him limb from limb and bury the pieces.

I doubted anyone but me would've missed him.

"Naruto if you don't shut the hell up about getting some water, I'm going to tear your lips off of your face and feed them to wolverines!" Naruto gulped and continued jogging, and I caught Sasuke sniggering.

After that day, Naruto went back to college, and Sasuke and I became more friends than what I had considered enemies.

We were slowly becoming friends, and as we got closer, the more I wanted him to approve of me on the field, and as a girl.

"Sakura! Sakura wake up! Come on, don't do this too me! Wake up!" Sasuke? Why are you yelling? Why are my eyes closed?

I opened them to find a pale looking Sasuke and the sky. I was on the ground. Correction, I was in the grass on the side of the road. I was thirsty and hot and didn't know what the hell was going on.

"Sasuke? What happened?" He looked a little relieved that I was at least coherent.

"You never showed up for our run, so I came looking for you. You were passed out on the side of the road. Have you been drinking enough water in this heat? You look really dehydrated." I shook my head.

"No, I really should. Do you have any with you?" He sighed, and handed me a bottle of water. I downed it, but I was still thirsty. He picked me up, and I protested weakly. I was so tired.

"Sakura, please don't be so stupid in the future."

"Gee, I'll try." I mumbled into his shoulder blades.

"Stop being so sarcastic. I mean it. I thought you got hit by a car or....or. Damnit Sakura! You're a girl you've got to be more careful!"

I started to struggle against being held. I didn't want to hear this.

"Damnit Sasuke! Put me down! I know I'm a girl! But I'm not some weakling! I can take care of myself!"  
"Oh yeah, cause you've done a real good job of that!" he spat.

I finally struggled out of his arms, and landed on the ground. I stood up shakily.

"Stop it! I've had enough of you patronizing me! Can't you just drop it! I fainted, so what? Girls at school have fainted from frog guts during dissection!"

"You're not just some girl at school Sakura! Can't you see that?" I flared up again.

"Oh yeah? Then what am I?"

He kissed me.

"You're the most amazing girl in the world. You're so beautiful and you don't even see it. You're so strong and I love it. I love every single thing you do and I don't have any idea as to why. But, God, you're so perfect..."

I managed to silence his rant about me with a kiss, and we decided to finish our jog tomorrow.

Perfect, huh? That's a new one.


End file.
